The fruit of the plant is primarily used as fresh fruit for shipping. Also suitable for customer-pick and processing markets.
‘Vernon’ was selected in 1990 at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, Ga. from a cross of T-23×T-260. T-23 was the female parent and T-260 was the male parent. T-23 is a progeny from a cross of W4×Callaway, and T-260 is from a cross of Brightwell×T-139. W4 is a wild type selection, and T-23, T-260 and T-139 are breeding lines developed, but not released, at the University of Georgia. T-23 and T-260 are older breeding lines no longer in existence. These were never released or otherwise utilized due to inferior fruit color, size, and/or quality. None of the lines used to produce this selection are patented. ‘Vernon’ has been tested in plantings at Alapaha Ga., Griffin Ga., Blairsville Ga., Clarksville Ark. and Poplarville Miss. since 2001. The resulting data from 10-site/years indicate that the new variety is widely adapted to areas conductive to rabbiteye blueberry production.
‘Vernon’ has been asexually propagated on many occasions since 1995 by softwood cuttings at Griffin Ga. It roots readily from softwood cuttings and in all cases the clones propagated from cuttings have maintained the vegetative and fruit characteristics of the original selection.
‘Vernon’ has been primarily compared with the current, early rabbiteye industry standards ‘Climax’ (non patented), and ‘Premier’ (non patented). In Georgia, ‘Climax’ yields have been highly unreliable, it is subject to spring freeze damage due to early blooming, and ‘Premier’ yields have been only moderate.
In tests over several years at Alapaha, Ga., ‘Vernon’ yielded significantly more than ‘Climax’ in 4 out of 6 years, and significantly more than ‘Premier’ in 2 out of 4 years. On average over a 6-year period, ‘Vernon’ produced 12.8 lb/bush, 86% more than ‘Climax’ (6.8 lb/bush) and 29% more than ‘Premier’ (9.9 lb/blush). Over a 2-year period at Griffin and Blairsville, Ga., ‘Vernon’ yielded 83% more than ‘Climax’ on average.
Over a 5-year period in Alapaha, Ga., ‘Vernon’ flowering time was 10 days later than ‘Climax’ on average, and was 5 days later than ‘Premier’. However, ‘Vernon’ ripened at a similar time to both ‘Premier’ and ‘Climax’. Thus, flowering time for ‘Vernon’ is late enough to provide some protection from frost problems, and ripening time is early enough to receive higher early market prices.
In addition to good yields and a favorable flowering time, ‘Vernon’ plant vigor and berry characteristics have been equal to or greater than ‘Climax’ and ‘Premier’ over a 5-year rating period at Alapaha, Ga. Berry size has been particularly favorable, which is desirable for growers. The larger berry size of ‘Vernon’ (1.87 g average) as compared to ‘Climax’ (1.27 g average), more readily facilitates hand-picking, and produces a better fruit pack-out. ‘Vernon’, with a rating of 8.5 on a 1 to 10 scale, is firmer than ‘Premier’ (7.4), which is important for maintaining quality during harvesting and handling.
As for adaptability to other areas, ‘Vernon’ seems to be as adaptable as ‘Climax’. Fruit and plant characteristics of ‘Vernon’ and ‘Climax’ were evaluated for 2 to 4 year-old plants at 2 locations in Georgia, one location is Mississippi, and one location in Arkansas during 2003. The two cultivars generally ripened at the same time, and had similar berry scar, color, firmness, and flavor. However, ‘Vernon’ had larger berry size (2.06 g average) than ‘Climax’ (1.56 g average), and typically had better overall plant vigor.
The new variety ‘Vernon’ is self fertile to a degree; however, it is recommended that it be planted with another rabbiteye cultivar with a similar bloom time for cross pollination. The recent release ‘Alapaha’ (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/225,211, issued on Feb. 21, 2006 as U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,266) would be a good choice for planting with the new variety.